The GMO pig trying to get to market

(NaturalHealth365) This is a story about mad science, greed and the GMO pig trying to get to market. Not your typical bedtime story – scientists are working to genetically engineer the smell out of pigs by altering their DNA. Better known as the Enviropig or Frankenswine, scientists have combined E. coli bacteria and mouse DNA to inject into the pregnant pig’s fetus.

Trials revealed that both the E. coli bacteria and mouse DNA were not only incorporated into the pig genome, but also inherited by the genetically engineered pigs’ offspring. Obviously, this begs the question- why on earth would anyone want to genetically manipulate the DNA of a pig?

Porky the pig and ham sandwiches will never be the same

The Enviropig was developed by, and the technology is owned by University of Guelph in Ontario Canada. Ontario Pork and the University partnering agreement shows that they intend to share the revenue – once this manufactured pig reaches the food consumption market.

The enviropig is intended to help the pork industry get around environmental regulations. Pig’s crammed onto factory farms produce an enormous amount of waste that have high levels of phosphorous. The phosphorous loaded feces is more than any factory farm can handle.

There are regulations in place that limit the amount of phosphorous these farms are permitted to release, because it pollutes the waterways and can kill marine life.

The idea was to create a pig whose manure would have 50 percent less phosphorous. This allows hogs to be crowded together – like never seen before. The whole idea is to create genetically engineered animals that can bring more profits to factory farms.

Soulless corporations want to destroy the animal kingdom for profit

The engineering of animals is a growing field. Governments are watching to see if this will be accepted by the consumers. Canada has approved the GMO pig for breeding and further study.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is looking at the prospect of producing animals that grow quickly, require less feed, and leave behind less environmentally harmful waste. To have the animals grow faster and fatter you have to feed them GMO corn, GMO soy and chemically-filled grains.

However, this is the precise practices that make pigs produce high levels of phosphorous. Most of the phosphorus in corn is in a complex form called phytic acid or phytate. Pigs and most farm animals do not have the digestive enzyme (phytase) in their gastrointestinal tract to break it down.

This is why most of the phosphorus in corn and soybean meal passes through the intestines unused, and is excreted in the manure. The pig will excrete up to 80% of the phosphorous in the corn. The real answer to hog production is to have smaller units, which are dispersed over a wide geographic area. Looking at the natural diet of pigs – it actually resembles a healthy whole food diet.

In reality, pigs enjoy fresh foods, and are the connoisseurs of good eating. They like a wide variety of foods including grass, water plants, bush and tree leafs, vegetables of all kinds especially cabbage, fruit nuts and insects.

Corporate greed has deadly consequences for human health

Canadian University of Guelph microbiologist and lead researcher on the project sees this as a way to make Canada a major supplier of hogs on the world market. Phosphorous pollution is only a problem to the industrial way the hog farms are run. When tens of thousands of pigs are housed under one roof – there’s going to be ‘safety issues’.

Health Canada does not conduct any of its own safety tests of GM foods but relies on data submitted directly from the product developer, in this case the University of Guelph. This data is classified as “Confidential Business Information” and is not accessible to the public or to independent scientists. Plus, as if anyone would really be surprised, there is no mandatory labeling of GM food in Canada or the United States.

What are the real safety concerns surrounding GM pigs?

The phosphorus, that no longer ends up in pig poop, accumulates in the pig meat which ends up inside the consumer. While phosphorous is a necessary nutrient, it is a poison when taken in excess. The classic health problems associated with excess phosphorous are systemic osteoporosis and a deranged metabolism.

Canadian pork processor, Olymel, stated it would not sell the GMO meat – even if it was approved – if consumers reject GMO foods. Currently, since the ‘GMO pig’ has not been approved, you may think it’s safe to eat pork products – right? Think again.

Enviropig researchers admit that those piglets that didn’t survive or were euthanized wound up for use in animal feed, even though they had no permit for using the animals in human or animal food products.

In 2002, these piglets were sent to a rendering plant and became part of 675 tons of poultry feed, which ended up being fed to egg-laying chickens, turkeys, and broiler chickens. The official response from the vice president of this research project was, ‘sometimes these things happen’. I told you these corporations have no regard for human health.

This isn’t the only occasion that GM pigs have contaminated the food supply. In 2004, GM pigs – designed by TGN Biotech – wound up in chicken feed.

Imagine if we read this story to our children — I wonder what they would say to us? At what point do we say – enough is enough. To avoid sickness and disease – we must return to safe farming practices and eat fresh, wholesome food.

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Reaching hundreds of thousands of people, worldwide, as a personal health consultant, writer and radio talk show host – Jonathan has been educating the public on the health benefits of an organic (non-GMO) diet along with high-quality supplementation and healthy lifestyle habits including exercise and meditation.

The fact that you have cleverly “omitted” in this wall of text is that farmers usually supplement the pig feed with phytase anyways, which allows the pigs to break down the phosphorous easier. The only difference between enviropigs and the farmers current methods is that the farmers no longer have to pay for expensive phytase supplements since the pigs already have genetically engineered salivary glands. This would help stimulate small farm economies, as now they dont need to try and afford expensive supplements for their pigs.
“I told you these corporations have no regard for human health.” Way to generalize there. Although not every corporation is a perfect one, their customers are.. humans. And cutting corners usually doesnt end very well, and these corporations know that. That is why the IKEA horse meat scandal became so famous.